Truckmakers who fail to meet the proposed standards could face fines and financial penalties, which could hurt truckers and raise the average price of commercial goods across the U.S. (Source: Road Transport)

Heavy vehicles
are defined as a vehicle with a gross vehicle weight at or above
8,500 pounds. This includes some heavy-duty trucks, large vans,
commercial trucks, and tankers. The majority of consumer
vehicles -- even beefy ones like the Hummer -- are well under 8,500
pounds.

The new restrictions, according to the current plan,
would be broken down into vans/trucks whose emissions and fuel
efficiency would be measured in gram per mile and gallon per
100-miles; and vocational vehicles/combination tractors (e.g.
commercial trucks, tankers, tractors) whose emissions and fuel
efficiency would be measured in gram per ton-mile and gallon per
1,000 ton-miles.

Combination tractors (commercial trucks)
compared to their 2010 base emissions and fuel efficiency would be
expected to "achieve up to a 20 percent reduction in carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions and fuel consumption by 2018 model year."
Vocational vehicles (e.g. buses, small commercial trucks, etc) would
be expected to post a 10 percent emissions cut and 10 percent fuel
efficiency gain by 2018.

Meanwhile, vans and heavy trucks
would be largely brought in line with the currently regulated
standards for lighter consumer vehicles, with a mandated 10 percent
GHG/fuel usage reduction for gasoline vehicles and 15 percent
reduction for diesel vehicles by 2018 model year (12 and 17 percent,
respectively, when accounting for air conditioning leakage).

Don
Anair, a senior analyst at The Union of Concerned Scientists Clean
Vehicles Program says its about time these gas guzzlers be brought in
line. He states,
"These trucks represent only 4 percent of vehicles on the road,
but they consume 20 percent of the fuel."

Some advocates
argue the new regulations aren't strict enough.

However,
others point out that that there's numerous problems with this
decision to heap
more layers of regulation on the free market. One
problem is that the fines or other financial penalties needed to
enforce these regulations could hurt the commercial trucking industry
and other vital commercial vehicle contributors to the U.S economy.
Further, the new regulations fail to account for the efficiency of
combination tractors' trailer, which can have a key impact on the
truck's total fuel efficiency.

EPA regulators claim that the
new standards are overall a good measure of the vehicles efficiency,
though. And they claim that by regulating the market they will
actually save truckers and other heavy vehicle users money.
According to the EPA these users and the businesses who support them
apparently by and large too incompetent to realize what's good for
them on their own, so they need the government to provide them a
friendly reminder.

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